How important is apostrophe?
Many councils across England took the decision to remove apostrophes in street signs in order to avoid confusion when using search engines and sat navs. This decision was criticised by many and Cambridge city council decided to go back to using correct grammar. After all, it is Cambridge – the home of dictionary and one of the most prestigious universities in the world.
Apostrophe has been part of the English language since the 16th century and since then has created many problems for the native speakers and those learning English as a foreign language. Just like commas, apostrophes can change the meaning of the sentence completely:
- These are my friends.
- These are my friend’s.
- These are my friends’.
The first sentence simply means that these people are my friends; the second one suggests that these things belong to my friend and the third one indicates that these things belong to my friends.
The most common apostrophe mistakes are its (the lack of apostrophe shows that it is a possessive form) and it’s (the use of apostrophe shows that there should be a verb is or has after it).